240 Buddha and Bodhisattva—A Hindu View

Everybody was aghast in finding the impostor grabbing food
from Bodhisattva's plates and swallowing. The swordsmen were-
about to behead him, when the king Bodhisattva refrained them
from doing so, and allowed the 'dtita* to have his full meal
first.

Then, Bodhisattva asked the man, whose message did he
bring, and the brahmin replied that he was a messenger from
Lust and the Belly !

"O king, the Belly's messenger you see :

O lord of chariots, do not angry be !

For Belly's sake men very far will go,

Even to ask a favour of a foe.

The Belly holds beneath his puissant sway

All men upon the earth both night and day."

Bodhisattva agreed that all creatures are messengers of the-
'Belly* and

"One messenger may to another give;
For Belly's messengers are all that live".

The episode also illustrates the fine sense of humour that the
Buddha possessed.

//. Illisa Jataka (78)

Matsari Kaushik was a miserly multi-millionaire living in
Sarkaranigam near Rajagriha. He made no use of his vast wealth,
either for his family or for sages : 'it remained unenjoyed like
a pool haunted by demons'.

One day, he saw a person eating rice-cake, and then asked
his wife to prepare this stuff exclusively for himself in the seventh
floor of his palace with great secrecy. Miles away, the Buddha
contemplated to reform this miser by supernatural means.
Accordingly^ he sent his disciple Maudgallayana to perform an
act destined to be humorous and also noble.